Have a customers Cub Cadet with an 18.5 hp Briggs V Twin vertical shaft. Had 140 Pounds compression on one cylinder and 60 on the other. What I found was semi deep (chatter) marks in that cylinder, in a pattern about an inch wide where the rings travel. Seem like these marks were made at the factory when it was bored. The rest of the cylinder has little wear with a nice crosshatch, but these marks are much deeper and not scratches but horizontal to the bore. There is .020 over Pistons made, but I'm not sure it would even clean up at .020, these marks are that deep. This engine has the cast in place iron sleeves. If it comes to that, can I put a sleeve in there to fix this? The bore is 2.970 inches. I can get a 1/16 inch sleeve close enough to work for that bore. Any special instruction for putting a sleeve in this one? Seems too good to throw away. Thanks

Thanks for the suggestion on the valves. I adjusted the valve before taking apart. Now that I have it apart the valves seal up good when checked. Now I have it disassembled with the piston out. It looks very good and also the rings look good. I am trying to decide whether to bore it and if I do, how much? The cast in the block iron sleeve looks to be maybe 3/32 thick. Would I be able to do an 1/8 inch sleeve? Or boring one side to clean up at .020 (if it does) and not the other? Throw the balance off? $100 a set for piston and rings, so we want to make this a reasonable fix.

You can bore - offset bore or sleeve most any Briggs engine as long as you can fixture it properly. First you
have to determine how far out of round it is to decide which procedure. Even though most are bored using
the deck surface as a reference, on used blocks the deck is usually warped and not perpendicular to the crank c/l.

I got the block bored and sleeve installed. Left about .002 interference fit.Heated up block with a heat gun, chilled sleeve in the freezer and went in good. Went with a flanged sleeve, FL72 from LA Sleeve. Putting together now (don't do like I do),I didn't mark the piston for installation. Does anyone know if the arrow goes towards the flywheel? It's a Briggs 40H777 OHV Vertical shaft. Thanks